The Revenant
The Revenant is a parasitic entity of unknown nature and origin. It's physiology, nature or exact race is unknown, but it is presumed to be an alien of immense power. The Revenant possesses latent pyschic abilities, ones that others have been shown to master for themselves. It is capable of bringing an entire civilisation that spans the entire galaxy under its control, as its willing servants. The Revenant feeds on humans, either physically or pyschically, and its hunger is infinite. The Revenant's current location is unknown, but it is believed to have recently awakens hibernation to escape the Warp, and is currently heading towards Barvos to begin re-enslaving the human race. Pandora's Box seems to be the only way to stop it. Origins The following transcript was an explanation given by Johnathon Bradley to the Spectres, and fully summarises the history and origins of the Revenant. Introduction 'Okay. So… you all know Pandora's Box is where this all started. Now, we know that the Box locked out to humans, but sometimes activates in the presence of titans. Truth is, this thing was designed for use by titans only. Designed for and created by them. Most of you know about the Zephyr. Ancient race of humans, genetically modified themselves to be a warrior race, spread across the entire galaxy in ancient times. Also, created the titans as soldiers for them, and created the Warp as a weapon and a means to spread to other galaxies. You all know how that turned out. They needed an AI to control the Warp and the intelligence… decided they weren't such a good thing after all. But here's where we missed stuff. The Zephyr and the Revenant The Zephyr… started out on this planet massive planet similar to Arsinos. They were a human civilisation, like us. Not particularly advanced but, human, none the less. No technology to leave their own planet but, well, things were fine. Then this creature comes along, this thing everyone's calling the Revenant. Now, we don't know where it came from, but whatever and wherever it is, it has these… latent psychic abilities. It controls mind, and its diet consists only of humans.'' Only'' humans. Now we don't know how exactly it feeds, if it physically eats or just… leaches off you with its power, we don't know but… point is, this thing effectively enslaved the entire planet. Brought it under its control. The whole population. None of them would've known they were being controlled. To them, it would've been like… hey, let's all suddenly unite, advance our technology and conquer. They probably thought it was… y'know, all in their name, but really they were just… doing what the Revenant wanted. To spread out. Find more humans, more food sources. So these human slaves go out, spread their empire, rename themselves Zephyr and start taking over the galaxy. Each world they take, the Revenant gets a new batch of servants to control and feed on. Every world it feeds on, makes it more powerful. And its hunger is never really filled up. The Titans are created Around half-way through expansion, there's a bunch of Zephyr who figure out what's going on. Either they… somehow resisted the Revenant, broke free of it or just saw it coming, I don't know. These… these rebel Zephyr. They figure out what's going on, and they try to fight it. But they know humans can't fight the Revenant. It just… can't be done. It feeds on us, it controls us. So these 'rebels'. 'THEY' create something that 'can' fight the Revenant - the Titans. The first original, organic pre-warp titans. But whatever the case, plan didn't work. The rebels were all wiped out or enslaved, added to the Revenant's feeding pool. And the titans they created, brainwashed. Forgot their identity, completely. Turned into the soldiers we 'thought' they were originally created as... but, not before the titans make a counter-measure. A weapon, that could destroy the Revenant. And… that's Pandora's Box. Pandora's Box and ExoTech The titans realised that the only thing that was effectively powerful enough to stop the Revenant was itself. Pandora's Box is sort of… a copy of the Revenant. A clone of its powers, its abilities and its personality, modified to be the 'anti' Revenant. We don't really know how it works. Or what will happen if we activate it. Or how to even do that… so best not to bother, for now. So these younglings that are in our Inquisitors heads… I think, when they were embryos, they were brought into contact with the Box and they accessed it. Because they could. But they were just… too young. Too weak. It destroyed them, changed them into… slaves, for the 'real' Revenant. A flaw in the whole 'fight fire with fire' plan the Titans had. In this case, it back fired. In 'theory' these creatures are only alive because they're linked. So long as one of them is alive, the others will stay sentient. Kill the last one, there's no risk of any loss of control. I can't garantee it means we can get them out afterwards but… that's something. ExoTech is the other side of the coin. It's all lead by one guy - Lazarus. A Zephyr survivor, who's 'still' under the Revenant's control. So, naturally, ExoTech wants Pandora's Box destroyed. They think that these younglings, or you guys for that matter, hold the key to figuring out how to do that. Why is all all happening now? When the Zephyr created the Warp under the Revenant's instruction, they made a mistake. It was the AI they created, the… 'Whiro' thing. It must've known. It must've seen what was going on. The Revenant couldn't control a machine. So we think 'it' used the Warp to create a blanket. Block the Revenant out, blind it. Then wiped out its servants, the Zephyr. And the titans inherit the Warp… and immediately start fighting over it. Eternity War begins. When you guys destroyed the Warp, you removed the blanket. Paved the way for Pandora's Box to re-awaken, and the Revenant with it. There's… one more thing. The Revenant's second coming I mentioned that the… Zephyr, started off on one planet, as simple humans. The Revenant found them there, and that's where it all started. JB: It was a big planet. Really big. And… during the whole Zephyr rebellion, the rebels thought they could destroy the Revenant by destroying the planet it sat on. Well they sort of succeeded. Except that we're standing on what's left of it. The Revenant is coming for 'this' planet. We'll be its first feeding ground. It'll start all over again where it started before. We gotta' assume that… it's coming already. Whether we beat ExoTech or not, it's on its way. We got one ace in the hole. And that's Pandora's Box. If we get ExoTech off our bats we can… figure out how it works. Maybe activate it, safely, and kill it. I don't know how long we have. Centuries. Decades. Years. Weeks. Days. Who knows.